Esoteric Survey

  Abel Sorensen, Glenn of California and Barney Reid Wilmer James and Tony Hill. I found the James on Saturday and the Hill in a different city on Sunday.  As you might recall from  this post , James and Hill were business partners.  More on this in a future post. Henry Dreyfuss

Lot 158 Tony Hill Lamp Tony Hill, Wilmer James and Doyle Lane were all black ceramicists in Los Angeles during the mid-century. They also all studied under Glen Lukens. Tony happened upon a night class Glen Lukens was teaching to “housewives and war workers” at the Pueblo at the Del Rio housing project ( Paul Revere Williams and Richard Neutra helped design the layout of Pueblo Del Rio). Tony was instantly inspired by the potential ceramics had to offer and was the first black student enrolled in ceramics classes at USC under Lukens. It was Lukens who encouraged Hill to start his lamp business.  The lamp can be seen here with a shade, to the right of Tony himself. He was in California Design 7 (1961) Photo: Jet, 1957 Tony Hill and Wilmer James  In 1944 Tony co-founded a studio in Los Angeles on South Arlington Ave with Wilmer James. According to a 1946 Ebony article, Tony tried to rent a store and “Security First National Bank wouldn't rent to a Negro”. A white friend rented t...

  Ceramic lamp by Tony Hill The lamp can be seen here with a shade, to the right of Tony himself. Photo: Jet, 1957 Tony Hill (1908-1975) grew up in St. Joseph, Kansas. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. William A. Hill. His father was the head waiter at a local hotel, along with being the editor and publisher of a newspaper called The Protest. Tony received a degree in social work from the University of Kansas at Lawrence and the Graduate School at University of Chicago. He worked as a case worker at United Charities. He took a four month trip to Europe, visited galleries and studied craft and art in Sweden. He returned to the US and worked as a social worker in Albany. In 1940, he married actress Frances Williams. After moving up the ranks as a social worker, he abruptly quit after being passed up for a promotion because the U.S. Social Security Board board “didn't think the country was ready for a Negro representative in a branch office.” His wife Frances wanted to move to Los Angeles...

Ceramics by Tony Hill (1908-1975) Hill was a noted Africa American artist who studied ceramics under Glen Lukens at USC. He ran a successful ceramics studio in Los Angles that was in business for over 30 years. His bio in  A Handbook of California Design, 1930-1965: Craftspeople, Designers, Manufacturers   describes him as a prominent member of the Los Angeles African American artistic circle and a role model for younger artists in the community, including  John W. Outterbridge .    Ads for his company were a common sight in Arts &  Architecture  magazine in the 1950s. Considering his  notoriety  and time in business, it would be expected that more of his work would show up on the secondary market, but examples  seems scarce .  Source: Arts & Architecture, 1952 Source: Jet Magazine, 1953 An ultra-modern home in 1953 sounds good. I wonder who the architect was?  Tony Hill Tony Hill...